Background of Ni No Kuni 2 – Revenant Kingdom – King’s Edition
The first Ni No Kuni was one of the best gaming experiences I had with my Playstation 3. The game released here in Denmark in January 2013 and prior to that I had made sure that I had a preorder ready for the collector’s edition (I have reviewed this edition here). I spend close to a 100 hours on this game and I were loving every bit of it. I knew that the developer, Level 5, had a knack for making really special games, as they were the studio behind one of my all-time favorite games; Dark Chronicle (also called Dark Cloud 2 in certain regions).
When Ni No Kuni 2 was announced I was thrilled that they were making a sequel in the same world with the same art style. As more gameplay and details were revealed my hype dwindled a bit. The protagonist, King Evan, just did not seem to be nearly as interesting as Oliver from the first game. Never the less I purchased the King’s Edition of Ni No Kuni 2, the biggest edition released here in Denmark. This is one of the bigger collector’s edition and it’s packed with cool content. Read on to hear how the quality holds up to the quantity.
Specs
Dimensions
Width 33 cm, Height 33,5 cm, Depth 16,5 cm
Weight:
3.651 g
Format:
PS4
Price*
DKK: 1.299| EUR: 174,50 | USD: 203,62 | GBP: 153
*Please note that I live in Denmark and all the prices are based on this. Denmark is VERY expensive with their video games, so keep that in mind.
The box
Just like with the box of Ni No Kuni’s collector’s edition the King’s edition is really lovely crafted. There has been put much love and care into crafting a box that will grace your shelf for a long time before something better will release. The outer box has all the expected information such as format, PEGI rating, developer logos and information on the back of the box. The inner box is for us collectors! Here we are stripped of all the commercial stuff and we can enjoy the awesome artwork without the view getting cluttered.
Build quality
The outer box is fairly thin and fragile, but that is to be expected. Its purpose has been fulfilled at the moment you bought the King’s edition and should be removed and stowed away at the instant.
The inner box, on the other hand, is surprisingly thick and heavy. This is ace quality and something all collector’s editions could learn from. Aside from the frail color this box will only break or rip if you attempt to do it.
10/10
Box art
I will ignore the outer box as you’d want to take this off to showcase the inner box. The box is a simple, matte, white with the colorful, hand-drawn artwork of Yoshiyuki Momose, a former Studio Ghibli employee who has worked as character designer on Ni No Kuni 2. The while backdrop looks great and makes all the characters of the game really pop out. There is still the logo in the top left corner of the front, but to be honest, it’s a great looking logo! The rest of the sides has minimalistic golden details and a portrait of the king himself.
9/10
Display quality
As soon as the outer sleeve has been removed this baby is ready to be shown off on your shelf – and it will look great!
9/10
Ni No Kuni 2: King Edition content
Artbook
So this is really great! A Ni No Kuni 2 hardcore artbook with 149 pages of awesome artwork! It’s a huge book measuring 31 x 31 cm with great semi-glossy paper. It’s in full color and shows of both characters, enemies, environments and more. We even get a few pages of concept art of characters and enemies that was cut in the final game. The only thing missing is more text and descriptions of the design process. It’s really rare we get this sort of information in an artbook, but it is present in the best of the best.
Quality 9/10 The quality is really high and coupled with the huge size this one should stand among your other artbooks as one of the most eye-catching. To get the perfect score we would need a bit more bling, but trust me, this one is great!
Relevance 10/10 The art style of Ni No Kuni is one of the things making this game and the series stand out from the competition. And when your designer is former Ghibli then yes, an artbook is VERY relevant.
Soundtrack Vinyl
I do not own a vinyl player and it’s currently not on my wishlist. Still, this item has gotten a prominent placement in my collection. The vinyl looks great with a colorful picture of Ding Dong Dell castle on one side and golden artwork on the other. The sleeve for the vinyl works as a pop-up book showcasing King Evan flanked by his trustworthy advisors Roland and Tani.
The vinyl has two tracks; Theme from Ni No Kuni II and The Curious Boy both performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. If you have played the game you might never want to hear the first track ever again (it pretty much plays on a loop all through the game). The Curious Boy is a sweet, downplayed piece of music with an almost naive vibe that builds up to a grand scale.
Quality 8/10 I’m not a collector of vinyl and to be honest I’m not sure if this is the only one I own. The quality is what you can expect, I suppose but the pop-up effect adds to the quality and showcase the love for detail Level 5 has put into this collector’s edition. Only let down is that it can not be completely closed as the pop-up figures will push it open.
Relevance 7/10 While I might be a bit tired of the first track of this vinyl there is no denying that the music of Ni No Kuni 2 is great. Not on level with the first game but still great. A vinyl is a great way to add content for the collector’s box. People with a vinyl player can get to listen to the awesome tunes and the rest of us can showcase it on the wall!
Music Box
Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom – King Edition comes with a unique “Evolution of the King” music box which plays the main theme of the Ni No Kuni series. The music box is shaped like a dome-shaped display box made of clear plastic. The bottom stand is in black plastic and has the logo of the game on the front. On the top of the dome, golden plastic cat-ears are placed reminiscent of a crown. Inside the clear dome, we get two different dioramas on each side showing off Evan the king’s humble beginning and on a small, wooden throne on one side and Evan surrounded by his most trusted advisors while resting on a grand, golden throne on the other.
The whole music box is 20,5 cm tall and the little figures inside are just about 5cm tall. Considering the size of the figures, there is great detail on them and you can easily recognize Evan, Roland, and Tani.
Quality 7/10 Except for the little turning wheel underneath the music box everything here is plastic – the wheel is some kind of metal. This is not surprising and even though this is plastic the feel and look of the thing is quite good. It feels sturdy and looks great. The details and the storytelling of the dioramas are really well made. The music, on the other hand, is not really up my alley. The theme of Ni No Kuni is great, don’t get me wrong, but playing through this music box the tunes get really off-pitch, off tempo and a bit shrill. It simply does not sound great. Put this thing on a shelf to look great and listen to the music anywhere else – maybe from the LP?
Relevance 8/10 A game with great visuals, great settings, and a lovely soundtrack? Sure a music box is relevant and highly original. It’s actually a great idea which I’m a bit surprised we don’t see more often. If just the music part has been better…
Behind the Scenes Blu-ray
In the King Edition, we also get a Blu-ray disc with behind the scenes footage and interviews. The disc comes in a steelbook cover which also houses 3 postcards with artwork from the game.
The Blu-ray has about 15 minutes of footage spread among 5 different episodes;
- ENTER THE ANIME
- GIVING LIFE TO THE CHARACTERS
- MASTERING THE MUSIC
- BUILDING THE KINGDOM
- LIGHT AND SHADOW
The episodes, though short, gives some interesting insights behind the scenes of the creation and design of the game. We also get interviews with some of the big names from the JRPG and anime world.
Quality 8/10 The content of the disc is nicely produced and showcase a great attention to quality. It’s a fairly short series of documentaries, but if you’re a fan of the game it will be an interesting watch. The steelbook is looking great, though fairly standard and I have a hard time getting excited about these things. The postcards are what to expect as well, but again – the artwork is really really good!
Relevance 7/10 Having played the game some of the themes mentioned in the interviews ring a bit hollow. This game is not better than the first one and in fact, I was a bit disappointed while playing it, and I’m not the only one. However, the developers claim the exact opposite stating this game towers over the first one and fans will feel the higher quality. Never the less it is relevant to tell us about the design process in a game that has been so hyped in the JRPG community.
Game Case
The cover is pretty basic and with some ugly content ratings on the front. Inside you get 1500 points to use in the Bandai Namco rewards club. You also get the season pass which brings us to the last item in the King Edition:
DLC
The season pass of Ni No Kuni has yet to give any value at the time of writing this review. We know that we will get some content in winter 2018 with a new dungeon and some more story content in early 2019. Hopefully, the content will be worth the wait but at this time it is impossible to rate this $19.99 value season pass.
Verdict: Ni No Kuni 2 – Revenant Kingdom – King’s Edition
I loved the Ni no Kuni Wizard’s edition for the ps3 giving it a 7,5/10 score. However, Level 5 has upped the bar big time for the King Edition and there is so much content in this box that I had a hard time getting this review ready while the game was still relevant. I bow my head to you if you made your way all the way through the above 2000 words because there was a lot of content to comment on. Overall the content had a high quality rating and everything was relevant to the game at hand.
Ni No Kuni 2 – Revenant Kingdom – King Edition is a great box of content and I hope you will, like me, enjoy every minute of opening, feeling and marvel at this great selection of fan service! There is no other score than a perfect 10/10!
10
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